A Lioness Lead, But No “Born Free”
M.J. Bassett cooks up action/ horror/ character study fi lm
BY GARY M. KRAMER
Directed and co-written by
transgender fi lmmaker
M.J. Bassett, the entertaining
action thriller
“Rogue” opens with an exciting
20-minute sequence. Samantha
O’Hara (Megan Fox) leads a group
of mercenary soldiers — including
Joey (Philip Winchester), Bo
(Kenneth Fok), and Pata (Sisanda
Henna), a Maasai guide — on a
mission to extract several young
girls being held captive by Zalaam
(Adam Deacon) in South Africa.
But saving the girls is only the beginning
of their adventure. Holed
up in an abandoned house, waiting
for rescue, the team is without
ammunition or power, and being
stalked by a hungry lioness. The
action comes to a head when Zalaam
and his crew turn up to take
the young girls back and all hell
breaks loose.
“Rogue” may have an “And Then
There Were None” feel to it as the lions
dispatch the humans at every
opportunity. (One killing is strikingly
fi lmed in night vision). But
Basset has an agenda— to address
issues of “lion farms” and the importance
of wildlife conservation.
In a recent Zoom interview, she
discussed her new fi lm, “Rogue.”
GARY M. KRAMER: The extraction
sequence is really exciting.
What can you say about creating
a rollercoaster experience for
the viewer? Because the tension
doesn’t end once the characters
wait to be rescued; they have to
fi ght off lions that attack!
M.J. BASSETT: The movie is
designed as a machine. The extraction
sequence is the fi rst act —
the team going in, trying to rescue
these abducted girls, it goes wrong,
they go on the run, and they have
to escape the bad guys. I wanted
to be inside the experience of that
extraction — handheld camera,
right up close and personal in the
shooting. There is an escalating
structure. I have to build obstacles
every step of the way. They escape
and think they have a respite, but
Megan Fox as the badass leader of a rescue team in M.J. Bassett’s “Rogue,” which begins streaming on
August 28.
then you realize there’s another
problem, the lioness. We allow the
audience to go from an action movie
to a horror movie to a character
piece.
Pata, the Maasai guide, talks
about being co-opted into a belief
system and a society he didn’t
have a choice in. Zalaam reveals
his own country didn’t want him.
Then you have Bo’s speech about
what we are doing to the wild animals
in the world for traditional
medicine.
KRAMER: I like the way the fi lm
empowers women, from Megan Fox
as team leader, to the kidnapped
girls, Asilia Jessica Sutton and
Tessa Isabel Bassett, co-writer
with M.J., deciding to fi ght back.
Is there a feminist statement here?
BASSETT:Writing the script,
I knew I wanted a female lead to
play Sam. The villain was female
— she’s a lioness, who are the real
killers. Sam buried her femininity
and maternal sense to exist in a
largely male world of being a soldier.
For Sam, her journey was to
be a complete badass and still be
a complete woman. I’m still exploring
my femininity and fi guring out
what it means to be a tough woman
LIONSGATE
in a man’s world. It’s not saying
it is a feminist movie, because
it doesn’t wear it on its sleeve, but
it does allow a woman to exist in
a non-sexualized way. Sam has no
love interest, no sexy costumes,
and she’s not objectifi ed. She’s just
a person doing a job.
KRAMER: I appreciated the
homoerotic bonding between Joey
and Bo. Did you have an intention
to queer the fi lm up?
BASSETT:Joey is bisexual. It’s
just a throwaway line because I
wanted it to be inconsequential. I
want to tell a trans story at some
point, but it won’t be a “Brokeback
Mountain,” because there are
plenty of fi lmmakers that can tell
those stories I don’t know how to.
But I can blow shit up and tell you
a trans story in the middle of the
explosions. I have no issues whatsoever
with placing a queer narrative
within a genre fi lm because I
think they belong there as much
as they belong in any straight drama.
I’ve known Philip Winchester a
very long time and he is super alpha
straight dude. It was funny to
me to have Joey as an all-comers
dude; he’s driven by his appetites
rather than anything to do with
STREAMING CINEMA
gender. There’s a love between him
and Bo.
KRAMER: What prompted you
to address the issue of lion farms
in “Rogue?”
BASSETT:There are so many
issues to deal with regarding conservation.
I was working in South
Africa on other stuff and learned
that the medicine market moved
from tigers to lions. They were
starting to poison lion prides. Then
it moved into the notion that lions
breed well in captivity. They were
bred for cub tourism, and canned
hunting was using them. It became
a huge, legal market. It’s another
aspect of how we are utilizing
the natural world in a horrendous
and disrespectful way. Lions are
big, powerful, dangerous animals.
They make a good monster for an
action movie. I could get what I
needed for the action but actually
say something useful about them
as well.
KRAMER: “Rogue” has some
jump scares and bloodletting.
Can you talk about your decisions
about the violent content?
BASSETT:The bloodiness and
the visceral nature are in keeping
with the chaotic energy and violence
of the world they are playing
in. Because the movie goes from
action to horror, there are jumps
that are telegraphed, so you know
they are coming, which is the delicious
nature of the genre. And a
few jumps are totally unexpected, I
hope. If you are attacked by a lion,
it is a very bloody experience. We
chose to use digital lions, rather
than real lions. I don’t like having
animals on set or trying to get
them to perform. I decided I’d rather
have a digital lion as opposed
to putting stress on real animals,
which seems counter to the ethos
of the whole movie. It was a moral
and ethical choice.
KRAMER: If you were put in
the situation that the characters
found themselves in, how would
➤ ROGUE, continued on p.26
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